Larkins in Argentina

At the
beginning of the 19th century, Spain was the imperial power in Argentina. In
this period of the early 1800s, a wave of wars of independence swept Spanish
America, led by Simon Bolivar, Bernardo O'Higgins, Jose Artigas and Jose de San
Martin. San Martin was the hero of the Argentine War of Independence which was
achieved in 1816. Admiral William Brown from Foxford, Co. Mayo, played a
prominent role in that war of Independence, being the founder of the Argentine
navy. Another Irish man, John Thomond O'Brien from Co. Wicklow, also was
prominent in the war of Independence, being adjutant to San Martin. It is said
that San Martin asked O'Brien to go back to Ireland for 200 emigrants. Argentina
was then a country of vast unclaimed lands. O'Brien spent the 1827/28 period
trying to recruit emigrants in Ireland, but without success. However, he met a
John Mooney of Streamstown, near Ballymore, Co. Westmeath. This was to be the
start of the Irish emigration to Argentina from the Westmeath/Longford/North
Offaly area because Mooney went to Argentina in 1828 when O'Brien was returning.
In addition to John Mooney, his sister, Mary Bookey (nee Mooney) and her
husband, Patrick Bookey, went with O'Brien. They were to achieve rapid success
in farming in Argentina and, due to this success, Mooney wrote home to Westmeath
for emigrants to come out and help him farm the vast lands they had found.
People in Westmeath responded in large numbers, from the 1820s onwards, and
right through the 19th century, and even up to 1914, emigrated to Argentina.

Indeed prior to
this emigration there were a small number of Irish in Argentina who arrived as
part of the abortive British invasions of 1806 and 1807. The first one was
commanded by General William Beresford and both expeditions had Irish officers,
Duff, Browne, Nugent, Kenny, Donelly and Murray. Some Irish members of both
expeditions deserted and settled in Argentina such as Patrick Island, Michael
Hines and Peter Campbell.

So one of the
most amazing emigrations had started 'travelling in humble carts, drawn by
donkeys carrying a whole family with their modest household goods and headed to
Cobh, Liverpool and Southampton, looking for the dreamt of Argentinian Pampas.'
The journey took many months travelling by sailing ship. It is reckoned that
there were around 300 Irish emigrants in Argentina by 1830, enough to see the
first Irish Roman Catholic priest, Rev. Patrick Moran, arrive as chaplain to the
emigrants in 1829. He was succeeded by Rev. Patrick O'Gorman in 1830. A survey
of the male emigrants in 1827 shows the following sources of the new arrivals:

60% from
Westmeath/Longford/North Offaly

15% from
Wexford

3% from Cork

3% from Clare

19% from the
rest of the country

The emigration
saw Westmeath providing two thirds of all the emigrants throughout the 19th
century. In 1844, a William McCann, during a 2000 mile ride through Argentina,
said 'at least three quarters of the emigrants are from Co. Westmeath.'

During the
1830s, there was a continued rise in emigration to Argentina, coming from three
sources:

Ireland,

Irish coming
down from the United States and

Irish coming
in from Brazil.

Some Irish had
gone to Brazil but, on not receiving a great welcome, crossed into Argentina.
Argentina gave them a great welcome as it did to all Irish and other emigrants.
Some such as Brown and Mooney became involved in the meat trade, but it was the
sheep trade that attracted most of them. Irish and Basque emigrants became the
mainstay of the sheep trade, and helped develop a wool based economy. Indeed, a
Peter Sheridan from Cavan, who emigrated in the 1820s, became one of the largest
sheep farmers in Argentina, and was instrumental in introducing the Merino sheep
Which today are to be seen all over Argentina. The Irish achieved great success
with sheep, especially because the native gauchos preferred cattle and had no
interest in sheep. Labourers earned up to ten shillings a day. A system of
halves operated, i.e. the owner of land supplied the land and flock, and the
tenant was responsible for all other expenses. In time, many became owners of
large estancias (ranches). By 1880, there were 58 million sheep in Argentina.

Fr. Anthony Dominic Fahy

The famine of
the 1840s in Ireland boosted emigration to Argentina from Westmeath and Wexford.
This movement continued into the 1850s. 1844 saw the appointment of Rev.
Antonio Fahy as chaplain. He was a native of Loughrea in County Galway who
had spent two years in Ohio in the United States. There he had seen the problems
among Irish emigrants in cities, so when he arrived in Argentina, he urged Irish
emigrants to avoid the cities and head for the vast countryside. He has been
described as the adviser, banker, matchmaker and administrator of a welfare
system for the newly arriving emigrants.

Born in 1805 to Patrick
and Belinda (nee Cloran) Fahy, Fr. Anthony Dominic Fahy arrived in the
South American country in 1843. just before Ireland’s Great Famine. When news
reached him of what was happening at home, he organized a fund of £441- 1s-
10d - a very large sum then – to relieve the suffering of the people. He also
encouraged their emigration to Argentina to escape the hardships of home and
in 1847 opened the Irish Immigrant Infirmary of Buenos Aires. This provided
refuge and nursing care to the increasing numbers arriving, many of whom were
from County Galway. Forever remembered as a pioneering figure and advocate on
behalf of his Irish flock, the Dominican spent many years serving as their
Chaplin and indeed matchmaker; with a reported 185 marriages blessed in the
five years from 1851 to -1856. Having played a key role in nurturing and
protecting the welfare of the Irish community, whose dependents today play a
prominent role in modern Argentine life, his sudden death on 20 February 1871
was a great loss. Today, the Fr. Fahy Club in Buenos Aires plays a key role in
the lives of the current Irish-Argentine Community. Three Irish-Argentine
community organisations now cater for the largest group of Irish descent
outside English-speaking countries.

The records of the port of Buenos Aires
for 1849 show 708 emigrants arriving from Ireland. Church building became part
of the Irish scene around this period, with new churches built in Buenos Aires, Barracas, Coronel Brandsen, Carmen de Areco, Rojas, Arrecifes, Mercedes and
Venado Tuerto.

Memorial to Fr. Fahy at Loughrea Cathedral, County Galway.

JAMES
LARKIN
& CATHERINE
PIERCEúltima
modificación: 28.01.2004

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If you wish to take contact with this family, please write to
Ricardo Daniel Larken Williams <parrcarmen@ciudad.com.ar>

To the Minister for Justice, Equality
and Law Reform Mr. John O’Donoghue, T.D.
We, the undersigned, citizens of the Argentine Republic and their supporters,
draw the attention of the Government of Ireland to the following issue: Whereas
Irish men and women emigrated from Ireland to the River Plate (currently,
Argentina and Uruguay), particularly during the nineteenth century at a time
when economic and social conditions in Ireland encouraged emigration and
Argentina offered opportunities for a better life; Whereas the economic and
social situation in Argentina does not allow the descendants of those emigrants
and their families to wholly fulfil the dreams of their forefathers regarding
the access to basic levels of security, health and education; Whereas members of
the Irish-Argentine community, most of whom are greatgrand children of Irish
emigrants, would like to have the opportunity to live and work in Ireland, just
as Argentina offered the same opportunities to Irish people in the past; Whereas
under the terms and provisions of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Acts of
1956 and 1986, those members of the Irish-Argentine community could not obtain
the Irish citizenship and could not in this way live legally in Ireland;
Therefore, your petitioners request that the Minister of Justice, Equality and
Law Reform allow Argentine-born great-grand children of Irish nationals to
become Irish nationals themselves or in the alternative to be able to seek and
obtain employment in Ireland as if they were Irish nationals. Yours sincerely.